Jodi Geschickter is not just an owner in “name” only. The “J” in JTG Daugherty Racing, Jodi Geschickter helps run the team, spending a great deal of time with sponsors as well as helping the team manager through the various mini-crises that go along with any race team.

“People see me driving the golf cart (around the infield at the track) and people say to me, ‘How do you get a job driving a golf cart?” Jodi Geschickter says. “I say, ‘It depends on who you know.’”

The Geschickters started their team in 1994 in the Nationwide Series, under the name ST Motorsports.

Jodi, still a flight attendant for U.S. Airways, figured it would be a good idea.

“I was naive, I didn’t know — we all do things in our youth,” she said with a laugh. “I thought it would be exciting and interesting. I really thought it would be something that he would do and I wouldn’t be part of it as much.

“But necessity and interest required both of us to do it.”

It has made Geschickter one of the few active female owners in NASCAR and the only active female owner/administrator of a Sprint Cup team.

JTG (Jodi Tad Geschickter) Daugherty Racing fields a Cup car for Bobby Labonte, who was 23rd in the Cup standings in 2012. The team moved to Cup in 2009 and Geschickter has been there every step of the way.

For six years, she would work in the office at the shop during the week and then work on planes throughout the weekends. She eventually gave up her job as a flight attendant but puts those skills to use daily.

“It was excellent training,” she said. “You have to work with what you’ve got. You are on an airplane and have limited resources. You work with different personality types. You work with a crew, just like a race team crew.”

Geschickter, a 1989 University of Tennessee graduate, said she has not had a problem with respect in the garage area.

“I found the industry to be respectful to women and to me,” Geschickter said. “We all have a job to do when we’re here.”

The most emotional days as a car owner for her were the team’s first Nationwide victory at Bristol in 1996 and then the day the team made its first Cup race at the 2008 Brickyard 400. Marcos Ambrose put the car in the field despite just two laps of practice.

While she misses time from family, Jodi has no regrets about the team ownership role.

“It’s kind of become who we are,” she said. “It’s what we do. We enjoy what we do.”